ID02120052_Limited_Sources_Justification_PCR_041_(PAID)_$665,380_signed_final__7.16.2019_(1).pdf

Limited Source Justification

I. Agency and Contracting Activity

Requesting Activity

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Contracting Activity General Services Administration Assisted Acquisition Services Division One World Trade Center New York, NY 10007-0089

II. Description of Action

This contract action is for a sole source award of a modification to International Business Machines (IBM), 6300 Diagonal Highway, Boulder, CO 80301 to address changes to HR Smart in support of the decommission of a legacy system.

Description of Supplies/Services

The requesting activity has an awarded requirement for the design, development, testing, training, deployment, hosting, help desk support, and also operations and maintenance (O&M) services for an enterprise Human Resources Information System (HRIS), known as HR Smart, that replaced the legacy 50+ year old Personnel Accounting and Integrated Data (PAID) which is at its end of life. The new system, provided by IBM, is in production serving over 400,000 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee personnel, providing VA Human Resource (HR) Specialists with personnel action processing capabilities, and both HR Specialists and all VA employees with benefits administration and compensation management capabilities.

These services are essential to provide critical core functionality required by HR Specialists to appoint, separate, or make other personnel changes. HR averages over one million transactions per year due to the size of the VA workforce. The new system provides the automated capability to initiate and process a personnel action. It utilizes automated workflows to initiate, review, and approve requests for personnel actions, route personnel actions through its approval sequence and provide appropriate notifications. Additionally, VA employees will use the system to review their own personal compensation information.

The current action, per Project Change Request 041 (PCR 041) addresses the requested VA requirements for IBM to provide for changes to existing Master Return Update (MRU), Nature of Action (NOA) files, to update HR Smart to support additional HR data, develop reports, and provide a enw salary component to enable the update and storing of salary tables within HR Smart.

The total estimated value of this requirement is $665,380.00. The VA has provided funding for the requirement. The period of performance approximately 5 months. The work will be performed under the existing CLIN 1025 as the work is a continuance/revision to those interface changes.

Authority Cited

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the services are unique to the source (IBM).

IV. Reason for Authority Cited

The current contractor, IBM is the developer of the proprietary HRIS SSC solution VA is currently utilizing.

This action provides for improved security processes. Outlined below are the relevant factors relating to this effort:

a. The VA requirement is within scope as it increases automation of HR business processes resulting in improvement overall of HR operations.

b. The current Contractor, IBM is the developer of the “proprietary” HRIS SSC solution VA is currently utilizing. IBM solely owns and license’s the PeopleSoft based developed solution and is hosting the solution at its facilities.

c. Purchasing the services through multiple contracts or other means would significantly increase the program risk and cause potential mission failure for program solutions. Such an approach would present a very high risk of configuration control issues across the multiple contracts.

d. VA currently does not have the programmatic skills or subject matter expertise in the area of product application development.

This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

This justification is prepared in compliance with 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), which authorizes the limiting of sources when “only one source is capable of proving the service.” Based on the requesting activity’s needs, the intent of this procurement is to minimize cost and transition risk to meet critical mission requirements. IBM has all the necessary labor skill categories to meet the requirements.

VI. Efforts to Obtain Competition

Market research was not conducted, details of which are included in the market research section of this document.

VII. Actions to Increase Competition

No actions were taken as this is a one-time address of the existing interface in production with follow on operations and maintenance that must be performed by the developer of the system.

VIII. Market Research

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 10.002 (Market Research –

Procedures), the Government’s technical representatives conducted market research in January 2016. Market research consisted of a review of the GSA Connections II contract and the Veterans Technology Services Government-wide Acquisition Contract (VETS GWAC), and also VA’s Twenty-One total Technology (T4) program to identify potential sources that could fulfill VA’s requirements for HRIS SSC. The Government determined that there are no other qualified sources to perform this work. IBM is the developer of the HRIS SSC solution and its documentation using the Oracle PeopleSoft HR product, as well, the solution is proprietary.

Attempting to replace this vendor, its hosted locations, or its trained and productive personnel already in place will create an undue and unnecessary disruption to productivity and present inherent delays.

VIII. Interested Sources

(See paragraph VI, Efforts to Obtain Competition).

IX. Technical Certification I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

7/2/2019

Mark Ricciardi Date PM, OIT, PD, Department of Veterans Affairs

X. Requirements Certification I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

7/2//2019

Mark Ricciardi Date PM, OIT, PD, Department of Veterans Affairs

XI. Contracting Officer’s Certification

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief, that the order represents the best value to the government and the anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. The pricing is based on IBM’s GSA Schedule rates less 25% discount. Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve a sole-source task order award to IBM pursuant to FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) for services.

Charles Ade Date Contracting Officer

XII. Concurrence

I concur with the Contracting Officer’s determination.

Lawrence Unger Date Deputy Director